This blog is a result of the heavy censoring of the media by the military dictatorship regime.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Drowned Aussie boy's parents want answers from Fiji resort

The parents of a 17 year old High school student
from Brisbane are on their way to Fiji to find out how their son drowned in a
swimming pool on Plantation Island resort.

The boy, Harrison Kadell, has been described as aa
talented performer with movie-star good looks who had landed film, TV and
advertising parts.

But in an
instant, in the early hours of yesterday morning, he was found floating in the
swimming pool at 4am and attempts to revive him failed.

Plantation
Island Resort managers said in a Facebook statement late yesterday that the
death resulted from an accident.

"Despite
the best efforts of resort medical staff and Unleashed crew, we were unable to
save him," the statement said. "Unsubstantiated reports of drinking
games and parties around the pool are untrue. This was a terrible, tragic
accident and we are all very sad about what has occurred."

35 comments:

tattifala
said...

my heart goes out to the parents and family and friends of the 17 yo Aussie boy who has died so tragically on holiday in Fiji.It's a family's worst nightmare. May God grant them the strength to handle this horrible loss.

Deepest sympathy to the late “Harrison Kadell’s” family and Scholl community. It is indeed heart wrenching and of cause, like all “suspicious deaths” question will be asked, especially by grieving parents.

In the Gold Coast 2 weeks ago a lovely 17 year old girl died in tragic circumstances, her Hotel was next door to the hotel my son and his mates boarded.

After the fact, all and sundry would claim parental guru status and numerous acts of “omission” or “commission” scrutinised. This is not the time for such stupidity!

Our pleas, is that we let the family greave the best they could. The Australian Embassy in Suva has one of the best consular services in the Australian DFAT.

To all you Australians. Please stay in your own country or have a holiday somewhere else. By coming for cheap holidays in Fiji you are only supporting helping the illegal government to put more money into their pockets. think of us poor people who are struggling with our life. Help us by not coming here.

Let's not exaggerate. My condolences to the family. However, the truth about schoolies should be told, how they bring their own people in, rent out whole resorts and just have a plain good old time partying - as most youngsters normally do. With the amount of alocohol consumed there's bound to be accidents. Resorts, if truthful, will explain how much damage is often caused to property by schoolies, how staff can find them lying all over the place in a drunken state. But the money is good so they keep attracting these youngsters every year. It's the responsibility of the resorts and the schoolies' tour organisers to ensure that the youngsters have a good time while not over-indulging to the extent that they place themselves in harm's way. I'm not suggesting this was the case here. I'm suggesting this was an unfortunate accident. But the resorts and tour organisers should be put on notice because incidents like this give Fiji a bad name and offers the opportunity for some to take a dig at all and sundry. Let's give the boy's parents the respect they deserve and allow them their privacy to grieve while seeking the answers to the questions they have. We should not add to their burden by speculating about the circumstances leading to this tragedy. May the young lad's soul rest in peace and may those who know the truth about what happened have the courage to explain how it happened and how it could have been prevented.

Rightly so!! The boy's parents deserve answers from the resort. In a Facebook comment these schoolies had been partying from early evening to the wee hours of the morning... which should have prompted Resort management to provide closer supervision in monitoring their activities. Damn the management!!!

Yes of course his parents will want to find out about their son's last moments. Stop sensationalising the issue C4.5. They have been through enough. Are you going to blame Bainimarama for his drowning? Grow up and get real.

editor, To Israr Khan's prayer " May Almighty enable the world to realise the dangers it is exposed to [by sex workers] and may He guide us all" ( FT 30/11) I wish to add may He also enable the world to realise the dangers it is exposed to by terrorists and may He guide us all.I think the world is in far greater danger of terrorists then sex workers and needs the protection of all including the Almighty who seems to be a bystander in all this.sincerely,rajend naidusydney

RNThe Almighty will bring justice in His time. Fiji time. Those on the wrong end of it won't know what hit them. Fijians are praying for justice in the temples, the mosques and the Churches. The Almighty IS listening. His sword will be sharp indeed. Stay strong. Keep praying. Be patient.

Thanks to kyum for reducing the drinking age hypocrite disgrace to the Muslim race binge drinking is a big problem in Ozzie and there plans now to incresse the drinking age in all states in Ozzie and kiwi land , we going in opposite direction jho

Thanks to kyum for reducing the drinking age hypocrite disgrace to the Muslim race binge drinking is a big problem in Ozzie and there plans now to incresse the drinking age in all states in Ozzie and kiwi land , we going in opposite direction jho

This is not the first time schoolies celebration goes wrong, similar death was recorded in France and also Gold Coast where the students were drunk. In this case its the game they play of holding breaths under the water. He wanted to break the record of his other mates and drowned. The Hotel and Fiji shold not be implicated in anyway.

It was a tragic accident indeed,very heart wrenching for his parents, at 17 years old.Wonder where the security guard was? How come no one saw the body until it was floating in the pool? That's about 14 to 24 hours later? Didn't anyone noticedthat he was missing?Doesn't the resort have their own security staff to ensure Health & safety is been practiced & observed? Ifthey don't then i hope that they have a darn healthy insurance policy?

You will never learn what the truth is in this tragic incident. Neither will the parents be able to sue anybody in Fiji. The illegal regime will never allow any of that. So much to pay for a cheap holiday. I hope no more Aussies will be duped by the Fiji BS promo of the Pacific paradise. It is now Hell on Earth!!! Just ask this dead boy's parents.

There are risks when you decide making holidays in a country where there is no law, no judiciary and no respect for human life. While I deeply regret the death of a young man, prospective visitors to Fiji should know that if something goes wrong, you deal with a nasty dictatorship with no respect for human rights and human life.

This should not be a place for political commentary. It could have happened anywhere. A young lady died on the Gold Coast from falling from a 25 storey balcony. Unfortunately where you have young people who are inexperienced with alcohol and large groups of teenagers ...shit happens.

Avoid the political comments for the sake of the grieving family. He was a bright young man with a big future. It is sad news indeed. Attacking the Fiji government on this one is inappropriate.

there should not be political commentary on this extremely sad incident - the tragic death of a 17 yo Aussie boy on a brief holiday at a Fiji resort.there should however be a thorough and proper investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death and the safety regime at the resort in relation to OHS.the parents of the boy deserve this as a minimum. and other tourist to fiji ought to know . it will not do the fiji tourist industry any good if an incident like this is swept under the carpet as just an unfortunate thing which can happen anywhere. that attitude is not good. it is infact very bad. let us get to the bottom of this tragic incident and clear the air and learn lessons from it - if lessons are meant to be learnt. that includes lessons to be learned by the tour organisers.

Mark is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Whats this story got to do with politics in Fiji? You seem to try and rubbish Fiji at any opportunity. Your supporters who say to boycott Fiji resorts should think about the lowly paid workers who will suffer if tourists do not come to Fiji. This blog has become a hate filled commentary on all thing bad in Fiji. we could easily have a running commentary on things in Australia, daily rapes, murder, corruption, racism, bushfire arson, pedophilia on a large scale of Aussies visiting Bali, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam. Lets hope you offer some balance by printing this contribution rather than simply just blogs that suit your purpose. This blog is afterall about media transparency as you proudly proclaim.

Tourism is Fijis major industry, andGovernment needs to protect it, at all cost? Government should legislates, that all hotels must be required, to established an excellent Health & Safety and Security Program. Ministry of Tourism must established a specialized inspector unit, to check and ensure that the law is observedand all hotels management are in compliant with the legislation? This will ensure public trust andForeign tourist confidence, in our tourist industry? I'm sure the AGwill be looking real close, at this heart-wrenching tradegy and watch-out for a new Hotel Health&Safety Decree? It's way overdue!!!

Deadly toxin in fish eaten while on holiday in Fiji has landed Kiwi in hospital for months and unable to eat except through a tube.

Amanda Austrin, pictured in Tauranga Hospital, still vomits every day - 18 months after her holiday. Photo / Alan GibsonExpandAmanda Austrin, pictured in Tauranga Hospital, still vomits every day - 18 months after her holiday. Photo / Alan Gibson

A New Zealand woman has spent more than 30 weeks in hospital and cannot eat properly after she was poisoned while eating fish during a dream holiday in Fiji.

Amanda Austrin has a severe case of ciguatera poisoning - a rare illness with no cure or antidote - after eating the fish with friends in July last year.

The odourless and tasteless toxin, found in predator fish in tropical and sub-tropical waters, can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, weakness, reversal of the normal sense of hot and cold, high blood pressure, paralysis, and in rare cases coma and death.

Most sufferers get over their illness within weeks or even a few days but Ms Austrin is among the very rare cases in which symptoms have lasted more than a year.

The Whakatane 41-year-old suffers from hot and cold reversals, meaning her shower temperature has to be very hot to provide any comfort for her when she bathes.

She still vomits every day - 18 months after her Fiji visit - and now has an extensive list of foods she cannot eat via a machine that feeds her for several hours of every day.

Article continues below

She wants to warn those considering holidays in the tropics to take caution when eating fish.

"Just don't eat it," she said. "There were no warnings whatsoever in Fiji from the restaurants dishing up the daily catches or from the locals.

"I imagine if you went up to the chefs and asked if the fish was ciguatera-free, they're not going to admit to it because they would lose too much business."

More than 100,000 Kiwis travel to Fiiji each year.

Ms Austrin, who has shed 20kg in weight, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) and travel agents needed to warn people heading for holidays in tropical areas to be wary of ciguatera poisoning.

"If I could have, I would have sued my travel agent. I have friends who went to Rarotonga today and there is no way they are going to be eating fish and that's because of me."

Robin Slaughter of the National Poisons Centre in Dunedin said a 2010 article in the New Zealand Medical Journal noted an increasing number of travellers returning home with the symptoms, which many local doctors may not be familiar with.

The New Zealand Doctor magazine said that in major endemic areas, including Australia, the Caribbean and the South Pacific islands, the incidence of ciguatera poisoning is about 50,000 cases a year.

A report by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, Foodborne disease in New Zealand, showed just two cases of ciguatera poisoning last year and no more than two outbreaks in any of the previous nine years.

But a 2007 NZ Food Safety Authority report said many travellers might not even know they had the illness and poisoning was likely to be unreported by a factor of 10 to 50.

Ms Austrin has spent more than half a year in hospitals but said because the illness was not commonly known in New Zealand, doctors were battling to deal with it.

"Every doctor I had had to Google it to find out how to do treatment. I'm the first case they have come across. That is why I want to get it out there.

"There is nothing they can do for the toxin. All they can do is treat the symptoms."

Ms Austrin is due to be admitted to Waikato Hospital soon for a neurological assessment.

How can the tourist claim she wants to sue the resort, but at the same time state that her friends will not eat fish in the Cooks? It makes no sense! The second statement is an implicit admission that fish poisoning is not solely confined to the fish preparation method, making the first redundant!

Secondly, ciguatera poisoning is NEVER detectable by odor, taste or smell! Otherwise, we would have never had the damned thing in humans in the first place.

The author of the article must be a complete moron to go ahead with printing the comments verbatim without using his own fucking brains! It's essentially saying that because Fiji is in the tropical region where ciguatera proliferates, tourists must avoid the country and/or fish. Well, good luck with that!

I sympathise with the tourist, and to some extent can cut her some slack for being indignant about this experience which has changed her life. Yet, objectivity must never become subservient to emotion.

@Gordon Tejitiens... too true. Thanks for a common sense view of the matter. Some kiwi lady gets fish poisoned and thinks tourist should avoid all local food. Tourists in Queenstown die from bungy jumping so everyone should avoid NZ?